cannabisnews.com: Forum Looks at Blacks' Prison Statistics!





Forum Looks at Blacks' Prison Statistics!
Posted by FoM on February 21, 1999 at 16:11:29 PT

At every level of the criminal justice system -- from juvenile hall to Folsom Prison, from arrest to sentencing -- African Americans are being locked up at a far greater rate than the general population.
Saturday, a cast of Sacramento law enforcers and community leaders examined why minorities are being confined in disproportionate numbers -- and what can be done about it.Poverty, lack of emphasis on education at home, drugs and institutional racism were some explanations that surfaced at the Sam Pannell Community Center.The most novel solution came from Superior Court Judge Barry Loncke, who suggested a reconciliation board along the lines of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission that would review the prison population and determine which inmates "didn't need to be there."Loncke, District Attorney Jan Scully, Sheriff Lou Blanas, city school board President Jay Schenirer, assistant chief of probation Diane Rodriguez, police Capt. Ernie Daniels, Juvenile Court Judge Alice Lytle, City Councilwoman Loren Hammond and other experts traded ideas with 250 concerned citizens.The audience heard an avalanche of statistics from a variety of sources, including the Sentencing Project in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Justice Department and the Sacramento-based Minorities in Law Enforcement: Nationwide, one-third of African American men between the ages of 20 and 29 are locked up, on probation or on parole, up from one in four in 1990. African American women are the fastest-growing population in the criminal justice system, increasing by 78 percent from 1989-1994. Over 80 percent of the 1.2 million annual drug arrests are of African American males. Crack cocaine users, who tend to be black, face sentences five times harsher than powder cocaine users, who tend to be white. In California, African American males account for one-third of the state's prison population but just 3.7 percent of the overall population. In Sacramento County, African Americans -- who represent 9 percent of the population -- account for 50 percent of those arrested for resisting arrest. About 31 percent of African American youths and 13 percent of white youths in California live in poverty -- mirroring their percentages in the California Youth Authority."One of the insidious effects of poverty is lack of appreciation of education in the home," said Loncke. "Many kids haven't seen a book in their house, nobody's read to them, so when they start school, statistically they're dead."Blanas said some parents don't want their kids in school -- "They want them to stay home and be their servant."Sheriff's Deputy Donald Northcross, who runs a Saturday mentoring program for 80 young African American males ages 12 to 18, said even poor kids excel if they're surrounded by loving community members.Taylor Fischer, a retired principal from San Jose, said the fourth-grade students who had the most interaction with the teacher got the best grades. "White male students got the most interaction, while African American males got the least," she said.Once in school, African American kids are too often treated like underachievers, Schenirer admitted. But school and probation officials have had success with home visits. "They even give them alarm clocks," said Rodriguez.Scully said 90 percent of chronic truants come from families with substance abuse problems. "My job is not to be a social worker," she said. "I'm the hammer. You need to have a consequence."But Loncke and Hammond, both African Americans, urged Scully to use more discretion before coming down hard on African Americans."If you get a kid who doesn't have anyone as their proponent, sometimes it's easier to use the hammer," Loncke said. He told the story of some successful white businessmen he met on a golf course who said they'd been in trouble with the law as kids. "Somehow those white businessmen got out (of the criminal justice system) . . . when our kids get involved, they can't seem to get out."Northcross said African American youths need to learn to keep their cool when stopped by police, or risk a resisting arrest charge.When a police officer racks up several of those arrests, commonly called "contempt of cop," he or she is ordered to get counseling, said police Capt. Daniels.Several speakers expressed frustration with the "system." Robert Smith, a retired Air Force veteran, suggested there was a conspiracy to lock African Americans up "so they can't have any babies. It's like Richard Pryor said, 'You go down to the courthouse looking for justice and that's what you find -- just us.' "But sheriff's Lt. Jim Cooper leveled much of the blame on laws that impose tougher penalties on "black" drugs, such as heroin and crack cocaine, than on "white" drugs, such as methamphetamines and powder cocaine."By the time a case gets to court, there's not much we can do," added Judge Lytle. "The harm's already been done."
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Comment #2 posted by Stan B on September 10, 2001 at 08:23:32 PT
Brothers and Sisters in the penal system
To look at these statistics hurts. I know by experience that some of the " officers of the law" set their sights on getting as many n____s behind bars as they possibly can. Many don't stop there, as we have seen in Miami. They want to see us dead. It is sickening to know that hatred and ignorance is still that strong. The whole wide world needs Jesus, and the church needs more of Jesus because there is racism in the churches also.
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Comment #1 posted by Anonymous on December 25, 2000 at 09:49:14 PT
Your Views
hmm it's hard to say blacks need to learn to control there cool when pulled buy police. Blacks are a whole diffrent culture from whites (if you did'nt know), Our goal in life is completly different from others. We like to be independent meaning owning the situation entirely. So when hmm it's hard to say blacks need to learn to control there cool when pulled buy police. Blacks are a whole different culture from whites (if you didn't know), Our goal in life is completely different from others. We like to be independent meaning owning the situation entirely. So when we feel threaten in any way we react with force. Blacks have been put through so much hell for many years, now all of a sudden they must learn how to act in accordance to whiteswhen half of the hoods (strict black terrain) are being used for illegal projects maintained by lack of education. The United States spend billions a year on other countries poverty and money laundering bureaucrats for there own benefits and nothing here where there are people who fought for this country, what does that tell you. The picture is to clear to ignore pain.
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